In today's commercial transport industry, it is highly desirable to design aircraft configurations that yield reduced fuel burn per seat-mile, as fuel burn per seat-mile is a metric of fuel efficiency. Efficient aircraft configurations are ever more important as fuel costs continue to increase.
Winglets have been used to reduce aircraft fuel consumption. The winglets may reduce the induced drag of the aircraft and improve the lift-to-drag ratio, thereby improving fuel efficiency. However, previous winglets are typically designed to provide maximum drag reduction and ideal improvement to the lift-to-drag ratio under cruise flight conditions. Consequently, these winglets may not provide optimal fuel efficiency during non-cruise conditions, such as during climbs, takeoffs and landings. Since non-cruise conditions generally make up significant portions of a flight, maximum efficiency may not be realized by such winglet designs.
Moreover, the presence of winglets may increase the wing bending load on the main wings of an aircraft. This increased wing bending load may be especially pronounced when an aircraft experiences high load factor condition, e.g., high maneuver load conditions or high gust load conditions. Structural reinforcements that compensate for these induced load increases may result in additional wing weight. Therefore, novel systems and methods which enable winglets to maximize fuel efficient for most flight conditions, as well as reduce wing bending loads induced by the winglets, would have utility.